Never Let Go
by Lilies of Avonlea
Summary: Anne gets typhoid instead of Gilbert and falls ill when she returns home after convocation. (Over used I know, but I couldn't help it.)
1. Chapter 1

**I'm Back! I haven't been writing in a while because of school and let's face it... It is COLD! No more excuses though. I've been gone too long. As for reading everyone's story. I have, but haven't had time to review. Let me just say I love all the work I have seen. I hope this makes up for my ghost reading :)**

Anne stepped off the train. It seemed that nothing had changed since the first time she had set foot in the Bright River Train Station. She half expected to see Matthews as shy and timid as ever.

A wave of dizziness hit her as she stood. She shook her head. Although the rest of the Island Scholars would not be back from Redmond for another three days she had got a ticket back home on the morning after convocation. Anne hadn't been feeling well and left as soon as possible hoping that being back home would help set her right.

"Anne!" She looked around confusedly before her eyes found Diana waving at from the passenger seat of Fred's buggy holding her new baby, Anne Cordelia.

"Diana!" She yelled gleefully. Anne ran to her bosom friend, ignoring the way the station seemed to spin around her.

"Oh how I have missed you." Diana gushed when Anne was settled in the backseat.

"It's been _so_ long." Anne splayed herself dramatically across her seat.

"So how are the rest of your friends at Redmond?" Diana asked a bit of bitterness in her tone. In her friend's letters it had always been filled with 'Philippa this', 'Stella that', Gilbert, Charlie, and a housemate's Aunt. She was nearly convinced that Anne had replaced her.

Anne looked at Diana in shock. "Diana Barry! I know exactly what you want to know. You are still my dearest and closest friend."

"I'm glad, but you must of forgotten that I married Fred." Diana smiled.

Anne turned a deep crimson. "I appologize. You were Ms. Barry for so long that sometimes it slips out, dear Mrs. Wright."

"You are forgiven." Diana said contentedly.

"Let's get you home, Anne. Diana and I were over at a Green Gables and everyone was anxious to see you." Fred said speaking for the first time during their drive.

"Dora was even fidgeting in her seat." Diana chimed in.

"I have missed Marilla and the twins so much. Even Mrs. Lynde's gossip is welcome."

A thick silence ensued. Anne closed her eyes willing for the nociousness to stop.

"Are you alright? You have not said a word for a while."

"I'm fine Diana. It is only the last few weeks have been hectic and I am a little tired." Anne murmured in reply, eyes still closed.

"You will rest when we get to Green Gables will you not?" Diana asked worriedly.

"I promise." Anne said. She didn't need any prompting. At this point she felt like she could sleep the rest of her life away.

When they arrived at the front of Green Gables Anne slowly got out and hugged her best friend goodbye promising to visit her the next day. She was ushered into the parlor and when the kind old soles found her 'only a little tired' and 'a bit woozy' they sent straight up to bed with bundles of warm blankets and came up a while later with some tea.

"Are you feeling any better?" Marilla asked setting a cup of tea on her bedside table.

"Anne? Anne!" When there was no answer Marilla hurriedly felt her forehead and the back of her neck. She was burning up. She was about to panic, but thought better of it. She pressed softly on Anne's stomach. Her girl squirmed slightly, almost unnoticeable, _painfully_. No. Marilla couldn't believe it. Her Anne could not possibly be sick and if she was it musn't be severe Marilla ran down the stairs screaming for Rachel to call the doctor. In the face of her girl being gravely ill. Marilla, none the less lost all the calm level headedness she was known for. She could only hope it wasn't true.


	2. Chapter 2

**Here you go Kathrine. You seriously motivated me to get this chapter done and your review about Marilla not knowing right away made sense, so now someone else gets to have that wisdom... :)**

...

Rachel looked up from her novel. (The novel she had taken from Anne's trunk after the girl had gone to bed)

"What is it Marilla? Why in the world would I have to- Is there something wrong with Anne?" Rachel asked worriedly.

Marilla took a deep breath. She had to keep her composure if she was going to help at all. "I believe there is. When I went to her room with some tea she seemed unwell." She said with a tremor in her voice.

"Well, let me see if there is something the matter. It could be that she's worn out from all that cramming and studying. I warned you both college wasn't a practical aspiration for a girl." Rachel said this as she moved upstairs towards Anne's room.

"Rachel." Marilla warned.

"You must admit that the thought has crossed your mind, Marilla. That if she hadn't gone to that high and mighty coeducational flirting ground she would not be so run down. Especially when she came home." Rachel opened the door to Anne's room.

"At least she has ambitions unlike that Pye girl." Marilla said through clenched teeth.

"Don't go comparing her to a Pye. You know as well as I that they are a class all their own." Rachel felt Anne's forehead. Scorching.

"What do you think Rachel?" Marilla dropped the previous line of conversation.

Mrs. Lynde pressed gently on Anne's stomach. A grimace.

She nudged Anne awake.

"Mrs. Lynde?" Anne whispered weakly.

"How are you feeling, dear?"

"Sleepy." She yawned and her eyes closed again.

"Anne." Mrs. Lynde tried to wake her again.

"Hm?"

"One more question. Is it warm enough for you?"

"No. It's freezing." Rachel watched as Anne drifted back to sleep.

"It is not good, Marilla."

"What is it?!"

"Typhoid, I'd know it anywhere." Mrs. Lynde said gravely thinking of her second child. He didn't live.

"No. No. Not my little girl." Marilla burst into tears, something she hadn't done since Matthew's funeral.

Rachel looked grimly at her friend. "Get some cloths and cold water. We have to bring down her fever. I'll get Martin to fetch the doctor." Rachel left the house in a hurry. Anne's parents if she remembered correctly, died a few months apart. She could only hope Anne had a better constitution.


	3. Chapter 3

Rachel ran as fast as her legs could carry her. Marilla was in no shape to be without her long and Lord only knew if the time it took to get the doctor would seal Anne's fate. When she saw Martin's form sitting languidly against the field's broken fence it was all she could do not to drag him to the buggy by his ear.

"Martin." She said sternly.

The young man looked up at her startled before scrambling to his feet. "I'll have this fixed by the end of the hour, Mrs. Lynde. Don't you worry. You know I'll even start on the broken lock on the barn tomorrow." Martin spluttered.

"Never mind that now. Get the buggy and go for the doctor." Rachel said pushing him towards the house.

"Is someone hurt?" Martin said trying to stop and get more specifics.

Did the boy not understand that only the

most dire things made them to call for a doctor? His obvious lack of common knowledge was frustrating.

"Anne has Typhoid." She said quickly.

He froze. Did he hear her correctly?

"Martin! Go!" Mrs. Lynde urged.

Mrs. Lynde didn't have to say anymore. He was on the road towards the doctor's practice in record time.

...

Next chapter we'll be checking up on Gilbert...


	4. Chapter 4

He had just wanted to go home, but Charlie had insisted that they go out to celebrate with friends.

Now, he winced in agony. He could have caught the train in the afternoon and be eating dinner with his parents. He wanted to celebrate with the people he loved most in the world. He wanted to see the pride in his father's eyes, hear the utter joy in his mother's laugh, and talk it all over with... But he couldn't as long as he stayed with Charlie.

That was why he kept nagging for Charlie to just keep celebrating without him, but Charlie, never one to take a hint dismissed his thinly disguised pleas and dragged him to another party or restaurant.

"_Charlie_, wouldn't it be nice if we said _goodbye_ to our friends and went _home_ to Avonlea _tonight_?"

"Don't be so anxious, Gil! We have a few more days before we have to go back to that pocky old Avonlea."

"Bu-"

"Now come on. We haven't seen any of the girls at Patty's place in quite a while" Charlie dragged Gilbert towards Spottford Avenue while Gilbert desperately tried to change his friend's mind. Alas, all of Gilbert's ploys to change Charlie stubborn mind were useless. So he stood there anxiously behind him.

What would it be like to see her smiling face if she opened the door? He wasn't sure what he would say. Wasn't sure what he would do even. Somehow, all the friendly ease they once had was gone. She would probably be engaged to Gardiner by now and he decided he would wish her well, even if he still wished she had accepted his proposal almost two years ago. It was sad that they never tried to rebuild the bridge they had burnt, but life had taken them down different roads.

He looked as the knob twisted and his stomach if it was even possible, started to do flip flops inside him. All that anxiety was all for not because when the door opened slowly opened it wasn't Anne who leaned against the door frame with a smile, but Philippa.


	5. Chapter 5

"Hello, Phil." Charlie greeted as he nudged his way into the cozy little home without an invitation.

"Hello to you too." She grumbled and then noticing Gilbert , smiled again and stepped aside for him to enter.

"I'm sorry Phil. Charlie was a bit presumptuous." Gilbert said as he walked past her.

"Don't worry about it. We don't really have much to do with Anne gone." She said the last sentence with a pause wondering what his reaction would be.

His smiled. "Probably off celebrating, I assume?"

"No, not at all. She's gone back to that Island you're both from." Phil said with a laugh.

"Ah." Why was it that Anne could go home on her own while he was stuck with Charlie Sloane all evening? Probably because he could barely get a word in edgewise and when he did he acted like Christine. Why he could not just blurt out "Charlie, I'm going home today. Are you coming with me or not?" He would never know.

He went to the little living room where Stella and Jamesmina sat quietly. The former reading a novel and the later knitting. From what he understood Priscilla was out with other friends.

"It's not fair you know... You spent more years with Anne than I'll ever be able to." Phil smiled.

"There is a thing called visiting you know." He teased.

"On a Reverand's salary? You are crazy if you think Jo and I could afford that!"

"Not even once every few months?"

"That isn't enough! Oh if only Jo could get the post in Avonlea. Then I could visit her almost every week!"

"You never know, Phil."

"I guess I can hope. Now, who is up for a game of cards?" She clapped her hands together excitedly.

They sat down and played go fish because Phil could not be bothered to learn any other card game. She chatted the whole time about various students, her Jonas, and the unheeded declarations of undying devotion from Alec and Alonzo. Laughter filled the room with each little recounting of small happenings or tales of harmless gossip. Charlie had even taken interest in the rumors sourounding himself. (Phil only ever told him the light hearted ones.) However, one things caught his interest in particular.

"I hope Anne'll get some of her color back now that she's gone back to PEI." She said nonchalantly.

"I think it was all that work maintaining her grades and social life. She'll be fine now. Do you have any threes?" Jamesmina replied.

"I don't know. Anne's had been acting oddly before she left." Stella tossed two cards to the center of the table.

"I'm sure she is writing us all a letter right now, Stella." Aunt Jamesmina patted her arm.

Stella smiled and nodded as Phil put one card in the pile.


	6. Chapter 6

Made some changes to the last two chapters. Read those before reading this.

...

Charlie finally let him go home after the "delightful visit with the ladies", so now he laid in bed thinking over the evening. While he'd missed Anne he couldn't help but feel relief that she hadn't been there. It probably would have been weird. How many times had he and Anne imagined their graduation? It must of been at least a thousand, and in each and every one of those imaginings they were always together.

Not in the engaged couple way lIke in his graveyard of buried hopes mind you, but a friendly togetherness. They hadn't done most of the things they had thought of doing.

The last one they thought of was that he would send her lilies of the valley, she would give him... Well, he didn't know what. She always said she had it already, but he would have to graduate to get it. One of the best things he remembered about that talk was that she said, "Gilbert, Do you think you could come home with me on that day?" He had sworn he would. He didn't do that though. She had went home with Gardiner or maybe even alone.

He had made so many promises to her about that one day. He broke nearly everyone of them. All except one. He had given her those lilies and she had worn them over all the flowers she got from others. It really made him happy that she did. He still had a place in her life. That of an old friend and like the friend he was, he would try to fix the bridge that they burnt.

He sat up from his bed and fished his watch out of his messy desk. Nine PM. The next boat left in an hour. If he hurried he could get a ticket and be home by the afternoon the next day. He couldn't go home with her, but he could take her on a ramble through the woods and talk over the past two years.


	7. Chapter 7

The twins, Davy and Dora Keith had to be sent to the Barry's. Marilla feared they would not be able to take hearing Anne's groaning and wheezing. The doctor and Martin had yet to arrive, so Rachel and Marilla continued to wage war against the fever alone.

"How long has it been since Martin left for the doctor?" Marilla asked as she rung out a new cloth.

"Almost three hours ago." Rachel grumbled loudly while taking the damp cloth from Marilla and exchanging it for the one on Anne's forehead.

"They better hurry. I'm at a loss of what else to do." Marilla ran her left hand through her child's hair.

"I'm sure we won't have to wait much longer."

"I hope so."

They continued to work for another half hour before Rachel looked out the window and saw Martin and the Doctor head towards the house.

"Marilla! Oh my!" Mrs. Lynde clapped her hands together and went towards the open bedroom door.

"What is it Rachel?" Marilla called after her hopefully.

"Doctor. Here. Now." Was all Marilla heard from down the stairs and she came running faster than she ever thought possible.

The doctor walked in with a serious expression on his face. When he went upstairs to Anne's room he told them not to follow, so Marrilla, Rachel, and Martin waited nervously in the kitchen.

...

**I'm typing on my phone because my tablet is currently being mean and in a boot loop. I will continue to post even if I cannot** **save my iPad. (Lets hope I can :D)**


	8. Chapter 8

"With the doctor here won't Anne be okay, now?" Martin asked with a child like hope ringing in his voice.

Marilla felt uncomfortable looking at Martin. He was twenty six years old, yet he had something of the naive thirteen year old when he lost his aunt to Scarlet Fever. It had been the first time he used that excuse to go home, and it hadn't been a lie.

Marilla knew that Martin's grandmother couldn't possibly of given life to enough babies for one of them to die now every few months, but she let him go every time because she remembered the look on his face when he had truely lost someone he cared about. The same look he wore now.

"It's just as likely as not. " Mrs. Lynde said frankly.

The hope in his eyes burnt out like a candle.

"Now, Rachel." Marilla said sternly, "We can hope for the best, and she has a better chance of making it with the doctor's help."

The hope flickered on again.

"Don't sugarcoat it, Marilla. False hope can be worse than none at all."

"I don't see why you can't give hope where there is some."

It took a moment for Rachel to think of a reply. "I hate the way you make your peas. It's so much better without the sugar you always put in."

"if honey can make that drool you call tea bearable, I don't see why we can't do the same with a situation this grave." Marilla snapped.

"Why, I never! I'll have you know-"

"That your tea is the best in PEI. We've all heard it before Rachel, and I'll have you know that when that reverend twenty years ago gave you his opinion of your tea, he was being all too nice."

"He was not, but you know who he was being to nice to? You. He told me that half of Avonlea raved about how delicious your apple pie was, but he thought it was one of the worst things he had ever tasted. Of course, he'd never say so to his host no matter how revolting it was." Rachel said with a smug smile.

"He obviously had no taste buds did he?" Marilla's own smug smile falling into place.

"I believed he had excellent taste." Rachel said indignantly.

Seeing how the conversation had gotten out of hand he interrupted them. "I think I'd like the sugarcoating for now, Mrs. Lynde. However, should the worst happen, make sure to give it to me straight." Matin said earnestly.

That seemed to satisfy both women and a fragile peace was restored for the time being.

...

Still typing on my phone. It looks like I'll have to completely erase my tablet to get it working again (Something I've been trying to avoid because there are chapters for other stories on there.) At least I'll be able to get it out of this annoying loop, right?


	9. Chapter 9

"Ticket... Please." Gilbert panted heavily as he took his wallet out.

"Where to?" The boy behind the counter laughed.

Gilbert cleared his throat. "Prince Edward Island."

"Next one leaves in fifteen minutes. If you think you can make it. If not-"

"I can make it!" He interrupted.

"If you don't make it you'll have to buy another..." The boy said with a smirk.

"Give me the ticket now or I won't be able to make it." Gilbert ran his hand over his face.

"If you say so..." The blond boy not above fourteen winked at him and started to look around in mock confusion. A few minutes passed and Gilbert started to worry. How hard was it to hand over a ticket!

"I can't to find the correct class of tickets, but if you want I could give you a class higher for five more dollars?"

Gilbert didn't hesitate. He plunked down the money and snatched the evil piece of paper from the now openly smiling boy. He took off running with his luggage.

His chest heaving he sat below deck with only a minute to spare.

...

So, I thought I would write this before school took over my life again :) Which I suspect will happen soon because I have a presentation to do in AP European History.


	10. Chapter 10

**So... I was gone for a very long time. I could give a whole lot of excuses, but what it boils down to is that: I moved from the west coast back to the south, I had a surgery on my leg, and had to get two of my wisdom teeth out.**

**I hope that that explains a bit why I haven't updated in forever and that y'all aren't too mad at me :)**

...

Gilbert sat panting in relief. He hadn't missed the train. However, he felt distinctly the lightness of his wallet. He was disinclined to think the worst of a person he was not well acquainted with. But, he couldn't help thinking that the boy at the counter had taken advantage of him.

It was things like this that made him glad he was going home. People wouldn't try to swindle him because he had a distinctly "non-mainland" air about him.

When the train pulled out of the station and Kingsport had faded away behind him doubts began to take hold of him. He wondered if Anne would welcome his attempt at extending an olive branch, or turn him away as he feared. Whether it would be the result of ill feelings on her part or Gardiner was unclear.

He tried to push the what ifs that started to flit across his mind rapidly by thinking of how his Ma would smile and run up to him to give him a hug, and his Pa would slap him on the back with pride at the sight of him walking up the lane with his degree. Only to become conscious a moment later of the fact that he could barely pay for the ferry ride back to the island, much less a ride from the station.

"Guess I'll have to walk." He sighed leaning back into his seat.

...

**This story has a lot of typos and looking back through it...I cringe. But, I won't be going back to correct those small errors yet. Which means that; while I do basic editing as I write, I won't nitpick my writing until I FINALLY am done.**


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